ABSTRACT
Background: Over 50% of patients with upper limb paresis resulting from stroke face long term impaired arm function and ensuing disability in daily life. The incidence of stroke increases dogmatically with age, doubling in the decade after 65 years of age. Early rehabilitation treatment in the first phase of stroke is currently advice in clinical guidelines and little evidence is available on such treatment for improving arm/hand function in the same period. Unfortunately, the number of effective treatments aimed at improving arm function due to stroke is still low. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate a new therapy for improving upper extremity function in sub-acute stroke patients based on mental practice theories and funtional task-oriented training, and to study the predictors for a positive treatment result. Material and methods: 30 sub-acute stroke patients with upper limb paresis were selected by simple random sampling in this study. The experimental group undertook 12 week, individually tailored therapy regime focused on improving upper extremity function using mental practice . primary outcome measures assessed upper extremity functioning with Action Research Arm Test, Fugl Meyer Test, and Modified Asworth Scale. ANOVA was used in this study. Null hypothesis with alpha level was set at 0.05. Conclusion: Mental imagining training resulted in significant improvement in upper extremity function in sub acute stroke patient. However the improvement obtained in upper extremity function found no significant difference after mental imagining training between the groups.
ABSTRACT
@#ObjectiveTo study the correlations between Berg balance scale (BBS) and balance subscale of Fugl-Meyer test (FM-B), and evaluate their practicability for assessing balance function of patients after stroke.Methods68 stroke inpatients were assessed with BBS, FM-B and BPM before training. After training they were re-assessed by the same researcher. The parameters of BPM were sway index, sway tract length and area. The patients were assessed twice with eye opened and eye closed respectively.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the score of FM-B between the first assessment and after training (P>0.05), while that of BBS and BPM after training were better than before the training (P<0.001). There was moderate correlation between FM-B and BBS (r=0.517,P<0.001), but there was no correlation between FM-B and BPM (r=-0.074～-0.247,P>0.05). There was moderate negative correlation between BMP and BBS (r=-0.410～-0.587,P<0.01).ConclusionBBS and BPM are good tools for assessing balance function of stroke patients; FM-B shows low sensitivity and is not suitable for assessing stroke patients.
ABSTRACT
The effect of the developed symmetric upper extremity motion trainer on the cortical activation pattern was investigated in three chronic hemiparetic patients using both fMRI and Fugl-Meyer test. The training program was performed at 1 hr/day, 5 days/week during 6 weeks. Fugl-Meyer tests were performed every two weeks during the training. fMRI was performed at 3T scanner with wrist flexion-extension in two different tasks before and after the training program: the only unaffected hand movement (Task 1) and passive movements of affected hand by the active movement of unaffected hand (Task 2). fMRI studies in Task 1 showed that cortical activations decreased in ipsilateral SMC but increased in contralateral SMC. Task 2 showed cortical reorganizations in bilateral SMC, PMA and SMA. Therefore, it seems that the cortical reorganization in chronic hemiparetic patients can be induced by the training with the developed symmetric upper extremity motion trainer.